Market trends may result from many types and levels of factors. For example, markets may be affected by various macro- and micro-economic trends, seasonal trends, social trends, corporate trends, etc. Each of these trends may, in turn, be affected by many other types of trends. As such, it may be difficult to develop meaningful data about many markets without supplementing large amounts of diverse types of market data with extensive amounts of data mining, analysis, and assumptions.
Typically, public and private entities may indirectly obtain market data through interviews and/or other techniques. For example, a government employee may contact representative merchant locations to ask about overall performance for a given timeframe (e.g., the past month). Investors may then obtain and analyze this indirect market information in making investment decisions.
These and other techniques, however, may provide limited market information. For example, interviewed merchants or merchant locations may provide inaccurate information, may not actually be representative of the market, etc. Further, delays in obtaining these types of market data may be undesirable for investors and/or other stakeholders.